Slaney Hoping Injured Achilles` Tendon, Image Recover

INDIANAPOLIS -- A picture of Mary Decker Slaney is featured on the Pan American Games official program cover.

However, the closest Slaney has been to a track has been as a CBS analyst for the track competition.

Slaney had surgery June 2 on her right Achilles` tendon for the second time in nine months. It was the eighth operation in her 15-year career.

With 13 months before the 1988 Olympics, the world record holder in the mile (4:16.71) and American record holder in the 800 (1:56.90) and 1,500 (3:57.12) meters said she is in no hurry to rush her recovery. Because she will miss the Aug. 29-Sept. 6 World Track Championships in Rome this year, the Olympics loom even bigger than they did in 1984 for her.

``The Olympics are extremely important,`` Slaney said. ``Everything I do between now and then is with the Olympics in mind. If it means risking injury, I am not going to do it. The Olympics mean too much to me.``

Like Carl Lewis, Slaney, 28, is finally beginning to realize how important her image is to the American public. A CBS official said her stint as an analyst will show another side and help soften her image. In track and field circles she is not known for her congenialty. A great deal of it stems from the 1984 Olympics, when she collided with South African Zola Budd and was knocked out of the 3,000-meter race. Slaney was criticized for her boorish behavior, for refusing to accept the apology of the 98-pound schoolgirl who idolized her and for continuing to criticize Budd some three months later.

Slaney, unlike Jim Ryun at Munich, didn`t even get up to try to finish the race. Budd finished seventh. Slaney`s emotional outbursts have yet to be forgotten.

``That incident helps me dig down now,`` Slaney said. ``Whenever I need something extra at the end of a race, the memory of `84 gives it to me.``

In 1985 she went undefeated in 14 races. Then she took time off to have daughter Ashley with second husband, Richard Slaney, an Olympic discus thrower from Great Britain. This was supposed to be her comeback year. Instead, it was another setback.

``It`s very hard for me right now, being here and not being able to compete,`` Slaney said. ``I like what I`m doing. It`s something new for me.``

Ten weeks and two days after the surgery, Slaney is up to running 4 miles. Interestingly, the day after the world track championships, she will resume her normal training regimen. She plans to run a few road races in the fall and two indoor track meets in the winter.

``Since I started running again, I have felt no pain,`` said Slaney, who has yet to win an Olympic medal. In 1972 she was just a schoolgirl; in `76 she was injured; in `80 there was the U.S. boycott and in `84 her fall from grace.

She had planned to run through 1988 and take 1989 off to have another baby, but now those plans have changed. She hopes to go after her world and American records after the Olympic year.

For now, the nation`s premier female distance runner is content to cook Chinese dinners for her husband, be a mother and dabble in TV broadcasting home and abroad. She will cover the world track championships for a Japanese network.

``Motherhood hasn`t changed my perspective on running at all or slowed me down,`` Slaney said. ``I think I can compete for another seven years at the highest level.``

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U.S. hammer thrower Jud Logan is upset over comments made by ABC commentator Marty Liquori, who said Monday there is an epidemic of steroids in track and field. ``I absolutely have never used steroids,`` said Logan, 28, who set a Pan Am record throw of 253-5. ``I would like to be tested. We want to prove Americans innocent. I don`t agree with Liquori at all.``

NOTES: Mexico`s Mauricio Gonzales, the 1987 Orange Bowl 10K winner, finished sixth in Wednesday night`s 1,500-meter run in 3:50.01. Brazil`s Joaquim Cruz of the University of Oregon won in 3:47.34... The Pan Am Games have been a steppingstone for great runners. In 1971, Frank Shorter of Gainesville was the only U.S. double winner for track and field events, winning the 10,000-meter race and the marathon. He went on the next year to win the gold medal in the marathon... Joan Benoit won a gold medal in the 3,000 meters at the 1983 Games. The next year she won the first women`s marathon Olympic gold medal.